Cycling; Experiment; Geographical environments; Walking; Virtual Reality; Bicycling; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; urban health
Abstract :
[en] [en] BACKGROUND: Geographical environments influence people's active mobility behaviors, contributing to their physical and mental health. The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in experimental research can unveil new insights into the relationship between exposure to geographic environments and active mobility behaviors. This systematic review aims to (1) identify environmental attributes investigated in relation with walking and cycling, using VR, (2) assess their impacts on active mobility behaviors and attitudes, and (3) identify research gaps, strengths and limitations in VR-based experimental research.
METHODS: Articles published between January 2010 and February 2022 within five databases (PubMed, Scopus, EBSCO, IEEE Xplore, and Cochrane Library) were explored using three keywords and their synonyms: Virtual Reality, Active mobility behavior, and Geographical environments. Studies focusing on indoor environments, driving simulation, disease-specific groups, non-relevant disciplines (e.g. military, emergency evacuation), VR methodology/software optimization, and those with static participants' involvement were excluded. The full protocol is available from PROSPERO (ID = CRD42022308366).
RESULTS: Out of 3255 articles, 18 peer-reviewed papers met the selection criteria, mostly focusing on walking (83%). Most studies used head-mounted displays (94%) and relied on convenience sampling (72% below 100 participants). Both static (33%) and dynamic (45%) environmental attributes have been investigated, with only 22% of them simultaneously in the same virtual environment. Greenness and crowd density were the most frequent attributes, rather consistently associated with emotional states and movement behaviors. Few studies have taken into account participant's previous VR experience (33%) and cybersickness (39%) while both are likely to affect an individual's perception and behavior.
CONCLUSIONS: Future research should explore a broader range of environmental attributes, including static and dynamic ones, as well as a more complex integration of these attributes within a single experiment to mimic the effect of realistic environments on people's active mobility behaviors and attitudes. Larger and more diverse population samples are deemed required to improve result generalizability. Despite methodological challenges, VR emerges as a promising tool to disentangle the effect of complex environments on active mobility behaviors.
Research center :
LISER - Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research
Disciplines :
Human geography & demography
Author, co-author :
GHANBARI, Marzieh ; University of Luxembourg ; Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg. Marzieh.Ghanbari@liser.lu
DIJST, Martin ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Geography and Spatial Planning (DGEO) > Geography and Spatial Planning ; Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
MCCALL, Roderick ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust > SNT Research Groups ; Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
PERCHOUX, Camille ; University of Luxembourg ; Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
External co-authors :
no
Language :
English
Title :
The use of Virtual Reality (VR) to assess the impact of geographical environments on walking and cycling: a systematic literature review.
H2020 - 956780 - SURREAL - Systems approach of URban enviRonmEnts and heALth HE - 101040492 - FragMent - Geographic environments, daily activities and stress: a study on the space-time fragmentation of exposure patterns
Funders :
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions European Research Council Union Européenne
Funding number :
956780; 101040492
Funding text :
This study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program- project "SURREAL-Systems approach of urban environments and health” under grant agreement No 956780. CP is funded by the European Union (ERC-2021-STG, FragMent, 101040492). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
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